Celebrate summer with giraffes, recycled art and more weekend events
By: Jim Martinho - Thursday, Jun 19, 2014 - 2:47pm
(Photo credit: ucumarie/Creative Commons)
Happy solstice, pagans everywhere! Saturday is the longest day of the year and the first day of summer — or, for pessimists, it’s when the days start getting shorter and summer is basically almost over. Hurry up and go do some fun stuff while you have the chance, because winter is coming.
* From the Tony award-winning playwright of “Once,” the one-night-only production of “Disco Pigs” at Oberon follows Pig and Runt, best friends living in Cork, Ireland, who are desperately trying to hold on to a childhood they may have already lost. I haven’t seen the show but I’m sure it’ll be OK — even when you’re a grown-up with a job and responsibilities and hangovers that last two days, you can still go to the supermarket and fill your basket with dino-shaped chicken nuggets and a Chunky and feel like a kid again. 6.19. 8p. $15-25
* Johnny Appleseed Hard Apple Cider is building the world’s tallest ice luge in the Seaport — at least 25 feet tall, to break the record. I feel like I should clarify that this is a booze luge, not like a luge from the Olympics, which is also made of ice and also features drunk people because you pretty much have to be drunk to do the luge, and anyways it looks pretty cold and alcohol helps with that. And yeah, booze luges probably spread germs, but so do dollar bills and you wouldn’t let that stop you from doing cocaine, would you? 6.19. 7p. FREE
* The Institute of Contemporary Art’s Talking Taste series welcomes Sam Treadway, bartender — mixologist? — at Backbar in Somerville. After mastering classic cocktails at Eastern Standard, Treadway spent a short stint in Hawaii until the Backbar owners convinced him to come back. I’m surprised nobody’s remade the Tom Cruise classic “Cocktail,” only instead of spinning bottles around, a young upstart (Zac Efron) learns how to make a perfect Ramos Gin Fizz from an aging British ladies man (Clive Owen). 6.20. 6:30p. $15
* To celebrate World Giraffe Day, Franklin Park Zoo kicks out all the other animals and transforms into an all-giraffe amusement park: Welcome…to Giraffic Park! OK, that’s not actually true, they only have like three giraffes, but one’s a baby and they’ll have zookeepers giving talks about giraffes all day. World Giraffe Day is appropriately held on the longest day of the year, or the longest night of the year in the southern hemisphere, where the giraffes like to party. 6.21. 10a. FREE
* Boston joins more than 720 cities around the globe for Make Music, inviting bands and musicians of all skill levels to perform in parks and open spaces all over the city. Harvard Square alone will feature 12 stages and more than 70 bands. Make Music is based on France’s La Fête de la Musique, with the significant difference that if some German guy tries to take over the bench that we’re sitting on playing a guitar, we’ll kick his ass instead of just letting him do it. 6.21. 10a. FREE
* Somerville’s first brewery since the 19th century, Aeronaut Brewing Company officially launches with Saturday’s grand opening party featuring live music, food, and obviously beer. The brewery’s 12,000 square-foot warehouse in the former home of the Ames Safety Envelope Company also rents space to year-round farmer’s market Something Gud and coffee roasters Barismo, so after you get drunk you can grab a coffee, sober up, and then get drunk all over again because it’s about the journey, man, not the destination. 6.21. 1p. FREE
* A wise philosopher once said, “one man’s trash is another man’s come-up.” Somerville’s annual Trash Bash takes that to heart with recycled art projects from 30 adult and 10 youth artists, plus workshops with Next Step Living, Somerville Local First, and Somerville Skillshare, and music by 3D and the Greaseballs and The Soulful Souls. 6.22. 12p. FREE
* If you really like Chinese lion dances and stuff but miss the annual Chinese New Year parade every year because you show up on January 1 instead of the actual Chinese New Year, the Chinatown Main Streets Festival is for you. Festivities include lion dancing, Chinese folk dancing, martial arts demonstrations, arts & crafts, and much more. 6.22. 10a. FREE